This invention relates to pet litter boxes for containing soiled and unsoiled litter, and more particularly to a pet litter separator for sifting soiled and unsoiled litter thereby exposing the soiled litter for removal while passing the unsoiled litter to a container for subsequent reuse.
Many pet owners utilize litter boxes for their pets. In order to minimize the odor from the pet box and to provide a litter box which their pets will use, the pet owner is required to constantly clean the litter box removing pet excrement and litter coagulated from the pet's urine. Also, for economic reasons, the recycling of non-soiled litter is desired thereby minimizing the cost of replacing the litter.
Pet owners may use a device known as a "pooper scooper" whereby the pet owner scoops the excrement and soiled litter from the litter box. Utilization of the "pooper scooper" is an unpleasant task requiring the pet owner to scoop up the excrements and soiled litter at a close proximity. Furthermore, the scooping action generally breaks up the soiled litter and the excrements whereby some portions of the soiled litter and excrements are maintained within the litter box.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,593 discloses a pet litter box comprising of a pair of identically matingly stackable trays whereby each tray uses a horizontally moveable bottom panel. The horizontal movement of the bottom panel results in the inadvertent grinding of the excrements and soiled litter into small particles which are not removed from the unsoiled litter. This grinding results from the excrements and soiled litter resting on a panel which slides horizontally pushing the soiled litter against a tray slat breaking small particles from the soiled litter. Consequently, when the litter is sifted, the small quantities of soiled litter is retained with the unsoiled litter. Remnants of excrements and soiled litter within the box makes the litter box less effective in that the odor pervades and domestic animals will be less likely to use the litter box if it has been soiled.
Thus, it is undesirable to utilize a litter separator which incorporates a horizontal sifting movement due to the resulting grinding of the soiled litter and excrement into small particles which are not separated from the unsoiled litter.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a pet litter separator utilizing a vertically moving separator for separating pet excrements and soiled litter from unsoiled litter enabling the unsoiled litter to be reused;
Additionally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a litter separator utilizing a vertically moving separator which is easy to operate to remove pet excrements and soiled litter from unsoiled litter enabling the unsoiled litter to be used over again.